Four released as Palestinians say prison conditions grim

Feb. 16, 2011 8:12 P.M. (Updated: Feb. 16, 2011 8:12 P.M.)

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Detainees Center in Nablus celebrated Tuesday the release of four men from the northern West Bank, while centers in Ramallah continued to report mistreatment of some of the 7,000 Palestinians who remain incarcerated in Israel.

Released, lawyer Ahmad Tubasi announced, were:

- Jalal Nakhleh, 40, from Ramallah, detained in 2009.

- Oday Abdul Fattah, from Hebron, detained in August 2010 (three of his brothers remain in prison)

- Munther Muhammad, 30, from Hebron

- Murad Taha, 28, from Jenin

From the Ramallah Prisoners Center, officials said a document was received from the Ar-Ramla prison hospital, saying candies given to admitted patients from their peers in the prisons they were transferred from were being confiscated.

The letter said the confiscation was a shift in policy.

The center also reported the deteriorating health of long-term prisoner, Issam Jandal. The Jerusalem native was sentenced to a life term, and has since been diagnosed with cardiac difficulties and asthma.

Basic treatment, the letter said, had not improved Jandal's condition.

He was detained first in 1975 and imprisoned for five years, and then again in 1986 when he was sentenced to a life term for resisting the occupation.